The old 'open' way failed us last time

At the Register building on Grand Avenue, the newsroom where I work is on the third floor. The editorial and commentary department, where Steven Greenhut works, is on the fifth. On the fourth floor is a patio balcony where he and I sometimes look out toward the Saddleback ridge and share a cigar (no, not the same cigar,) as we debate county issues.

When I pick up Greenhut's column, I make it a goal to stay with him to at least the third mention of John Locke before I go to the crossword puzzle on the back of Arts. This past Sunday, he offered his take on the hiring of our next sheriff, mentioned the Hoover Institution only once, and I stuck with him to the end. Metaphorically, there was another fourth-floor coming-together moment, so today I'm going to piggyback on that.

Greenhut emphasizes the need for openness in selecting a sheriff and in the department itself. Who is going to argue against that, especially at this point? But the execution of selecting a sheriff can be done in more than one way, and I've heard some consternation from those who think the Board of Supervisors should have called an election.

Here's why an election doesn't necessarily mean a more open process than the appointment route that was taken: because it didn't work with the last two sheriffs.

Brad Gates was initially appointed, but after that was a creature of his own considerable imperiousness and the old-boy network that allowed him to win re-election after re-election. Finally, the old boys decided they'd had enough and that Mike Carona was the guy.

There was no vetting process that involved 48 nationwide candidates, as we have now. Basically, they were fed up with Gates, looked around locally at who was willing to take on the Big Guy, and decided it was the Little Guy. Send your checks to Mike Carona for Sheriff.

That is exactly how Carona was elected. He had some good ideas (mostly never realized) and a winning personality, but as much as anything he had the money and unqualified support of the Lincoln Club and the mainstream Republican establishment. They have to own that and, in conversations with me, some do.

But do you think that if there were a special election for sheriff and they got yet another chance to essentially anoint the next sheriff, they'd pass that up? Could they resist that? No way. Who could? And were this Establishment with its great political machine to create a groundswell behind one person, that person would have the best chance to win a special election.

So now, the matter goes before an electorate of exactly five. They - unlike most of the establishment GOP - areanswerable to the general electorate. And they know this will be perhaps the most closely watched decision they'll ever make.

You could call Pat Bates and Bill Campbell establishment Republicans; they came up through the ranks. John Moorlach is in pretty good with the establishment, but he's got a record of independence. Chris Norby- he's a conservative by principle, but he does any crazy damn thing he wants. And Janet Nguyen- well, I don't have to make much of a case as to just how far out of the old-boy network she is.

We have a better chance of getting the best candidate for the job through this imperfect representative form of government and its interview process than we do by opening the door to an election in which the candidates with the most money will certainly be the front-runners.

Moorlach and a few others pointed out that my earlier suggestion - the sheriff always be appointed by the Board of Supervisors - would require a change to the state Constitution. That'll never happen.

So in the absence of a permanent appointment system, you could say O.C. is getting a break.

As I said yesterday, the heaviest reading I did all weekend was the O.C.-based car-collector magazine Velocity.

Through which, I should note, I learned Art Astor is putting up his monster collection of mid-century American autos on the auction block.

When I wrote about him a few months ago, the radio-station mini-mogul was still deciding what he was going to do with the collection. Velocity reports that both Astor's cars, housed in Anaheim, and another major collection - that of late auto dealer Joe MacPherson- go on the block in June. See www.rmauctions.com.

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